| This contest is fueled by the following news: |
| | In a newly released audiotape, Osama bin Laden warned that his minions are plotting new attacks in the United States. He also offered the American people a long term truce, without specifying any of the conditions of such a truce. Portions of the tape were aired on Al-Jazeera television and was the first message from bin Laden in more than a year. The tape appeared in public only two days after the U.S. struck a Pakistani target at which it was believed bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, was present. Four leading al-Qaida figures were thought to be killed in the attack, possibly including al-Zawahri's son in law. There is no mention of the attack in the tape which appears to have been recorded in January. The people associated with Al-Jazeera would not comment as to how they know when the tape was recorded.
Usama’s biography:
In 1996, Bin Laden issued a fatwa, directing Muslims to destroy the American forces in Saudi Arabia and Somalia. In May of the same year, Sudan expelled bin Laden, mainly in reply to the threat of UN sanctions, because of the supposed participation of Sudanese authorities in the attempt on the life of Hosny Mubarak, President of Egypt, in Ethiopia in 1995. A month later, bin Laden returned to Afghanistan, where he continued Islamic extremist activity. In 1998, he issued the second fatwa, ordering Muslims to kill American civilians.
Bosnia and Herzegovina:
During the period of the Bosnian War, Osama bin Laden visited Sarajevo. Bin Laden and his Tunisian assistant Mehrez Amdouni obtained Bosnian citizenship in 1993. According to information from the Bosnian press in 1999, the passport was issued to bin Laden by Alija Izetbegovic, the President of Bosnia and Herzegovina in appreciation for the support by Mujahedeens and his aim to create “fundamentalist Islamic republic” on the Balkans. Bin Laden financed the transfer of mercenaries from the Arabian world to Bosnia with the help of Sudanese business partners. In a short time, Bosnia was flooded by insurgents from Sudan, Lebanon, Pakistan and other Islamic countries. During the same time, the group "Al-mujhaddin" was created as part of the Bosnian Muslims Army. Brutality was practiced by them (sadistic tortures, dustbins, filled with chopped-off heads, Chelebichi and other concentration camps for Serbs), which horrified even the local Muslims. According to the evidence of former prisoners of concentration camps, Mojaheds personnally participated in the killing of 72 000 Serbs in BiH.
Bin Laden's presence in Bosnia were reported by foreign journalists. A journalist from the German magazine "Spiegel", Renate Flottau asserts that she saw bin Laden in Sarajevo when he came to Izetbegovic, President of Bosnian Muslims in 1993. On February 3, 2006 in ICTY, during judicial hearings on the Yugoslavia President Slobadan Milosevich, British journalist Eve-Ann Prentice, correspondent from the "Gaurdian" and “London Times”, has said under oath that Osama bin Laden personally visited Alija Izetbegovic, President of Bosnia and Herzegovina in November 1994. Prentice stated that she saw bin Laden entering the office of Izetbegovic shortly before she took his interview.
Albania and Kosovo:
For the first time, Osama bin Laden visited Albania as a guest of President Sali Berisha in 1994 or 1995 by stating that the government that he heads the flourishing Saudi agency, rendering humanitarian assistance. Hashim Thaci, Ramush Haradinaj and former chief of Albanian secret police Bashkim Gazidede were also present in a meeting with Osama bin Laden with Sali Berisha.
In December 1998, the head of Albanian's intelligence, Fatos Klosi stated that Osama bin Laden had personally visited Albania and represented one of the fundamentalist groups, which sent fighters to participate in military operations in Kosovo. Klosi has expressed the opinion that terrorists have already infiltrated into different areas of Europe from bases in Albania, using an illegal migration method. Interpol had warned that Islamites have a higher possibility to acquire false documents as more than a hundred thousand Albanian passport applications were stolen during the 1997 unrest. The participation of bin Laden's fighters in the terrorist activity in Kosovo was confirmed by Claude Kader, a French citizen, who said that he is a member of the Albanian network of bin Laden. He admitted that he went to Albania for the preparation and arming of the fighters in Kosovo. In 2000, Osama bin Laden also worked in Kosovo, carrying out terrorist activities during the war in the Persian valley.
|
|
|
|
|
|
